Raise your hand if, last August, you thought the San Francisco 49ers would finish 13-3 and win the NFC West. If your hand is raised, you must be lying—or you’re Jim Harbaugh.

No way anyone thought he would bring the 49ers so far, so fast. Not as a first-year NFL head coach. Not after a lockout. Not joining a franchise that hadn’t reached the playoffs since 2002.

Even if Harbaugh did rejuvenate the 49ers, surely it would take time. It did—about five minutes. And now Harbaugh, with 18 votes to Packers coach Mike McCarthy’s eight and Broncos coach John Fox's three, is our 2011 coach of the year after leading the 49ers to a 14-4 record and an appearance in the NFC championship game, where they lost to the New York Giants.

“The plan was to win this year,’’ Harbaugh says. “There was no five-year plan, or three-year plan. It was, ‘Let’s win this year.’ How can we do that? By getting better every day.”

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Harbaugh’s motivational talents are easy to see. He is intense. He is thorough. He is demanding and innovative.

The 49ers responded to Harbaugh partly because he made things fun. As a way to keep practices fresh, he made a point to install new plays on a regular basis throughout the season, plays the 49ers had not used previously.

“It’s a fun part of the job,” Harbaugh says. “The thing that makes it fun is that the players are really stimulated by that. We’ve got smart guys. They want it; they almost need it. Really keeps them on razor’s edge.”

Harbaugh’s style is not subtle, but it’s effective. He is enthusiastic, sometimes overly so, which can rub opponents the wrong way. Harbaugh’s postgame confontation with Lions coach Jim Schwartz on Oct. 16 was one of the memorable snapshots of the season.

Coaching is a results-oriented business, and Harbaugh got immediate results. Some of the 49ers’ players had been losing for years. He tapped into that thirst to win, and when the 49ers started fast, they bought in. Harbaugh coached them hard, and they played hard in return. They also played for one another.

“The team, the team, the team—that is something that coach Harbaugh always says,” tight end Vernon Davis says. “That’s what it’s all about.”

After a long slumber, the 49ers returned to prominence this season. Without a doubt, their coach was the catalyst.

Previous winner

Sporting News voters selected the Falcons' Mike Smith as the 2010 Coach of the Year.

About the awards

Sporting News polled 632 NFL players, coaches and executives for our awards. Everyone voted for offensive and defensive player of the year, rookie of the year and comeback player of the year. Only the 32 coaches and executives from that group voted for coach of the year, coordinator of the year and executive of the year. Thirty coaches and executives voted on the All-Pro team.